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50th Anniversary of the Communist Party of Canada

By MEL DOIG

This year marks the 50th anniversary
of the founding of the Communist
Party of Canada. The March-April issue
of Communist Viewpoint is presented
as a symposium which vividly records
the 50 years of the Party’s struggles
and their impact on history, and relates
them to the battles of today and to-
morrow.

There’s nothing pedantic about it.
This is because the articles are written,
as editor Norman Freed notes in his
introduction, not by “ivory-tower his-
torians concerned with explaining his-
tory,” but by “Marxist revolutionary
activists engaged in changing history.”

For Canadians interested in doing
just that—changing history—the sym-
posium provides both fascinating read-
ing and a weapon, for its pages bright-
ly mirror the past and illuminate the
path ahead.

Communists have no interests other
than those of the working people. This

essential identity and purpose come
soaringly out of the symposium, which
shows how the Communist Party of
Canada has carried out its role as the
revolutionary party of the working
class.

On Tactics

Nowhere out of the tumultuous past -

are more important lessons to be drawn
than in an examination of Communist
_ -strategy and tactics. In his article on
that subject, William Kashtan writes
of the struggle against opportunism in
the working-class movement from both
the “right” and the “left,” that has
engaged the Communist Party from its
birth. He shows how the ideological
fight against both these currents in the
working class has been combined with
a consistent struggle for the united
front.

Kashtan describes the Leninist ap-
proach that has led to the Communists’

_ proposition of today for the “building
of a democratic, anti-monopoly, anti-
imperialist coalition led by the working
class and the Communist Party, direct-
ed to curbing the power of monopoly
and regaining Canadian independence.”

“Such a coalition,” he explains,

_ “while not separated from the struggle ~
for socialism, constitutes a distinct and

related stage in the struggle for social-
ism. The immediate aim and program
is not socialism.”

His exposition of how Communist
tactics were applied, corrected and
developed in the crucible of the strug-
gles of Canadian- workers shows that

“the 50 years of our Party are living .

proof of the necessity for a Communist
Party based on Marxism-Leninism, a
party of a new type whose aim is the

revolutionary transformation of soci-
ety.”

On Opportunism

The struggle on two fronts, against
right and left opportunism, and hew it
has engaged the Communist Party of

Canada since it was founded in Guelph -

in June, 1921, is further dealt with in
the article-by: William Stewart. He tells
how in this struggle Canadian Com-
munists were guided both by their
’s own experiences “and the le-
gacy of the struggle on two fronts deve-
loped by Lenin and practised by the
Communist Party of the Sqviet Union
and the international communist move-
ee
 cwear relates how the lessons =
in’s Left-wing Communism—an
fantile Disorder served Canadian Com-
munists to defeat Trotskyite and “left-

ist” positions in their own party. For
all who seek the Marxist-Leninist an-
swers to the what and the why today
of Trotskyism, anarchism, Maoism, the
“new left” and ultra-leftism, his article
is instructive reading.

On Struggle

Each article adds to the stirring ac-
count of the past 50 years of Commun-
ist thought and action in Canada, of
how they were always directly related
to “the makers of history—the working
class and its allies.”

Bruce Magnuson swiftly reviews how
the Communist Party was born and
developed in the fire of class battles:
From the “great turning point” — the
First World War and the Great October
Socialist Revolution; through the Win-
nipeg General Strike of 1919; the appli-
cation of the War Measures Act (yes,

the same one that last October was.

used for the military occupation of
Quebec) that made it necessary for the
founding convention of the Communist
Party of Canada to be held in secrecy
in 1921; the dark days of R. B. Bennett,
Section 98 and the outlawing of the
Party; the story of how Communists
fought under all conditions, in the trade
union movement first of all, “to build
firm political alliances between the
working class and all other groups in
our society .. . exploited by monopoly
capital.” He writes of how Commun-
ists fought always for peace as for
life; of the Mackenzie-Papineau Bat-
talion in the Spanish Civil War; and
of the battles in Canada for social legis-
lation such as unemployment insurance
and family allowances, when unem-
ployment, as today, was ravishing our
people in the 30’s. In exciting, capsule
form Magnuson shows how Canadian
Communists were, through all the past
50 years, inseparably part of the flesh

‘and blood of the struggles of the work-

ing class.

On Quebec

Sam Walsh describes the attitude of
Canadian Communists to the French-
Canadian nation in the 50 years of its
existence and presents the Marxist-
Leninist position of the Communist
Party on the crisis of Confederation.

Important to that presentation is his
description of the evolution of that
policy, from an emphasis on achieving
national equality to a fully developed
position on the national problem: ‘‘Na-

- tional self-determination to Leninists

means in Canada control by the French-
Canadian nation of their own state and
their right to decide whether they wish
to separate from the dominant nation
or advance a new basis for confedera-
tion.”

The crisis of October 1970, his article
maintains, has confirmed the correct-
ness and “vital relevance” of the CPC
policy with respect to the French-
Canadian nation.

On the 1930's

Communists and the “Hungry Thir-
ties” is the subject of an article by
George Harris. “The history and les-
sons of the Hungry Thirties,” he writes,
“should be carefully studied by labor
today, not to copy, but to learn what
there was in that period which could
be valuable and useful in the inevitable
struggles which are ahead,” :

As he movingly relates the story of

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 1971--RAGE 10 60.- pee DY Cogn

KA APG a PAGS aA

the grim days of the “pogey’, Harris
notes the propaganda of monopoly’ to-
day bears a striking resemblance to
that in the early 30’s.

“Perhaps the outstanding similarity,”
he says, “is that between the then
prime minister, Richard Bedford Ben-
nett and the present prime minister,
Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Both, with utter
disregard for elementary economic
facts, charged the working class, the
victims of unemployment, with being
responsible. The similarity between the
two prime ministers is striking in an-
other respect: when the chips were
down, they were arrogant and ruthless

in their efforts to place the burden of |

capitalist crisis on the shoulders of the
working class, and in attacking the
basic rights and freedoms of the Cana-
dian people.”

In the 1930’s the: Communists were,
Harris relates, “the main force, initially

almost the only force, to rally the ever- ~

growing army of jobless workers .. .”

Many things have changed since
then, “but, as the current crisis con-
firms, capitalism remains fundamentally
the same . ... And as in past struggles,
many workers will learn in the future
struggles that while it is essential they
fight for reforms within capitalism, the
basic solution to their problems as a
class will come only with the establish-
ment by the working class of a social-
ist Canada.”

A

On Peace

Describing the struggle for peace as
the “most burning question,” Alfred
Dewhurst shows how the.condemnation

of wars between peoples, expressed at

its foundation 50 years ago remains a
“basic attribute’ of the Communist
Party. He defines the Leninist distinc-
tion between unjust and just wars.
After reviewing the history of the
mass united movements against war
and fascism, and the role of Canada’s

. Communists in them, he makes the sali-

ent point that in the struggle for peace
“the decade of the 70’s .. . is not the
decade of the 30’s. The forces through-
out the world standing for peace are
now stronger than those standing for
imperialism and war.”

Dewhurst’s article, concrete in its
enunciation of the content of an inde-

pendent Canadian foreign policy start-

ing with the unequivocal demand for
and end to U.S. imperialism’s aggres-
sion in Southeast Asia, advances the
Communist position on peaceful co-
existence between states of differing
social systems. - /

On Youth

A. French Communist’once said, “Le
communisme, c’est la jeunesse du
monde” (Communism is the youth of
the world). To illustrate this truth,
Elizabeth Hill, secretary of the Young
Communist League, and veteran Com-
munist Norman Freed have collaborated
in the article, “Communists and the
working and student youth.” Describ-
ing the plight of young people in Can-
ada today—a “new lost generation—
the article tells of youth’s present re-
volt against the Establishment. It re-
lates the long and glowing history of
how YCL members, always helped by
the Communist Party in its concern
for the interests of young people,
played a great role in advancing the
study of Marxism-Leninism, participat-
ing all the while ardently and militantly
in the struggles:of Canada’s workers
and youth. Depicting young people to-

_ day as “the greatest victims” of mon-

Vivid record, vital challenge

opoly and the Trudeau government,
article welcomes the decision of 7
Communist Party’s 20th Convenh |
“to work for the re-establishment
young communist organization.”

On Women

In her article, “The Feminists,

‘fuzz and the Communists,” Maria

bois contributes a brief, lively #
of the role of women, noting
much have women to gain in ke
the true source of their exploitatidl,
“And nowhere else can they leat?
she says, “but through the Commll
Party!” - ;

\

On Democracy 9

From June 1921, while the
tionary organizations were out
under the War Measures Act, a
October when it was first appli
peace time, and to the present ?
sion of civil rights under the
Order Act, the role of Communi
champions in the fight for demo
described in an article by
Demers. wet

A substantial contribution
symposium is made by John ©
article on Communists and Cai@
democratic traditions. Describine,
assumption of state power by thé’
sian workers on Noy. 7, 1917
working people’s—most democt@
revolution,”: Weir demonstrates
and why Communists are the m0S" ig
sistent champions of democracy
democratic traditions. This, he
is “not only because democrati¢
are the product of people’s bitter
gles and create the most favorable”
dition for the defense of people>
ests, but because the defense ©”
tension of democracy is the most g
able road for the attainment of ©
ers’ power and the establis
socialist democracy, incomp* ,
broader and more profound than
geois democracy, culminating
less public self-administration
under communism.”

On Internationalis™

Signalizing another of the
sium’s great themes, proletat!
nationalism, R. S. Kenny ©?
an article on the 100th Annivé
the Paris Commune. e

Four “Flashbacks”—from th is.
ings of Tim Buck, Leslie Mom,
Beckie Buhay, and from the P° i
Tom McEwen—add to the sympoe
glowing story of the past 59
Canadian Communists.

For Change

In concluding his article ded
the issue to the 50th Anniver
posium, the editor writes: nd
cause. the working people 4
democratic allies are in motio®
tion and change in this unpre nal
period of our history that os
Communists enter the 50th at 10
with great confidence that 4
lead to a socialist Canada. in
join with us on this life-rewat
to real and full happiness. | aj/¢

This confidence and this cht
brilliantly and movingly - f
throughout its pages, make ©
sue of Communist Viewpoint .
able contribution to the 50th
sary of the Communist |
Canada